Hazardous waste sites methods

The EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) has responsibility for managing the analysis programs required under the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The approved analytical methods are designed to analyze water, soil, and sediment from potentially hazardous waste sites to determine the presence or absence of certain environmentally harmful organic compounds. The methods described here all require the use of GC/MS. 

The use of a drain system permits the quick construction of a collection/removal system which also serves as a barrier for leachate from large, shallow sites. At the Sylvester hazardous waste site in Nashua, New Hampshire, a groundwater interception and recirculation system was installed as a method to retard further spread of the leachate plume until a remedial cleanup action could be implemented. The system was operated for 1 year until a containment wall and cap were constructed over the 20-acre site (McAneny, 1985). 

However, a sample taken in the doctor s office can be properly packed and shipped to a special laboratory, if necessary. Because endosulfan leaves the body fairly quickly, these methods are useful only for finding exposures that have occurred within the last few days. At this time, these methods can only be used to prove that a person has been exposed to endosulfan. The test results cannot be used to predict if you wiU have any adverse health effects. Exposure to other chemicals at the same time at hazardous waste sites could cause some confusion in understanding these results. More information about tests to find endosulfan in the body is presented in Chapters 2 and 6. 

Agarwal et al. 1978), the quantification of these specific enzymes may indicate that exposure to endosulfan has occurred. Blood tests, such as decay curves for aminopyrine in plasma, which are semiquantitative indices of liver enzyme induction, have been used successfully in the past to demonstrate enzyme induction in pesticide-exposed workers. Because numerous chemicals found at hazardous waste sites also induce these hepatic enzymes, these measurements are not specific for endosulfan exposure. However, measurements of enzyme activity, together with the detection of the parent compound or its metabolites in tissue or excreta, can be useful indicators of exposure. All of these potential biomarkers require further verification in epidemiological studies. Further studies with focus on the development of methods to separate and measure the estrogenicity of endosulfan in in vitro assays would be valuable since these assays are more sensitive and discriminative than other conventional biomarkers. Preliminary results have been presented by Sonnenschein et al. (1995). 

With the recent Increase In activity at hazardous waste sites where cleanup and remedial action are underway, there has emerged a need for rapid analytical methods for assessing contamination in water, sediment, and soil. Of special Interest, because of widespread use and disposal. Is the group of materials known as PCB s (polychlorinated biphenyls). 

Rulkens, W.H. and Assink, J.W., Extraction as a Method for Cleaning Contaminated Soil Possibilities, Problems and Research, 5th National Conference on Management of Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites, Washington, DC, 1984, pp. 576-583. 

Chemical compatibility tests using U.S. EPA Method 909040 should always be performed for hazardous waste sites, but some municipal waste sites also contain hazardous, nondegradable materials. U.S. EPA conducted a 5-year study of the impact of municipal refuse on commercially available liner materials and found no evidence of deterioration within that period. However, in a current study of leachate quality in municipal landfills, the Agency has discovered some organic chemical constituents normally found in hazardous waste landfill facilities. Apparently, small quantities of household hazardous waste enter municipal sites or are disposed of as small quantity generator wastes. As a result of these findings, U.S. EPA developed a position on the need for chemical compatibility tests for thousands of municipal waste disposal sites. 

Hall et al. (1985) reported that no 1,2-diphenylhydrazine (less than pg/L) was detected in the Nanticoke River near the Chesapeake Bay. The analytical method involved liquid-liquid extraction, concentration, and. analysis by GC/MS. The Contract Laboratory Program statistical database (queried April 13, 1987) reported that 1 2-diphenylhydrazine has been detected n water at i of 357 hazardous waste sites at a concentration of (96 ppb (CLPSDB 1987), and has been reported at 7 of 117, sites. n the national Priority List database (ATSDR 1990) The U.S. EPA Contract laboratory Program uses GC methods to analyze the contaminants of interest. Since 1,2-diphenylhydrazine oxidize, to azobenzene in the GC injector port and both 1,2-diphenylhydrazine and azobenzene, have the same GC retention time and mass spectra, reports of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine from the Contract Laboratory Program may actually represent detections of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine, azobenzene, or both (see Chapter 6 for more details). 

Diphenylhydrazine has been identified in soil only at hazardous waste sites. The Contract Laboratory Program statistical database (queried April 13, 1987) reported that 1,2-diphenylhydrazine has been detected in the soil at 2 of 357 hazardous waste sites in both cases at 18,200 ppm (CLPSDB 1987). The Contract Laboratory Program uses GC methods to analyze the contaminants of interest. As discussed in Section 5.4.2, this may actually represent detections of either... 

Methods for Determining Parent Compound and Degradation Products in Environmental Media. While analytical methods appear to be available for the analysis of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine, no methods were found for the preservation of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine in ambient air, water, or soil samples. Such methods would allow the development and analysis of a monitoring program designed to better assess the concentrations of 1,2-diphenylhydrazine in and around hazardous waste sites. 

Methods for determining cresols in environmental media are summarized in Table 6-2. Procedures for the determination of and o- and p-cresol in water, soil, and sediment samples at hazardous waste sites are outlined by EPA (1988a). The required quantitation limits for each of the isomeric cresols are 10 ppb for water samples and 330 ppb for soil and sediment samples in this monitoring program. 

Mitigation of Effects. No information was located concerning mitigation of effects of exposure to 2,3-benzofuran. Information on techniques to mitigate low-level, long-term effects would be useful in determining the safety and effectiveness of possible methods for treating 2,3-benzofuran-exposed populations in the vicinity of hazardous waste sites. 

In the case of degradation products and metabolites, the situation is different. Generally, these compounds were not analysed because in most cases they are not regulated and no effective analytical methods exist for their determination. This means that a correct diagnosis of the environmental situation cannot be made and, as a consequence, no appropriate action can be taken. Therefore, in order to improve the risk assessment of a hazardous waste site for example, as many compounds as possible should be analysed at the beginning of the investigations (non-target analysis). 

Exposure Levels in Environmental Media. Current data on tin levels in air, water, and food are limited (EPA 1982a, 1988c NAS 1977 WHO 1980). Additional information on inorganic and organotin concentrations in all media, especially air, water, and soil at hazardous waste sites, determined by the most sensitive analytical methods, would be useful in evaluating human exposure to tin. 

The ability to rapidly assess or monitor the disposition of environmental contaminants at purported or existing hazardous waste sites is an essential component of green chemistry. Soil samples, which represent approximately half the total number, are extracted with solvents, and then further separated using additional solvent to produce chemical-specific fractions. Each fraction is then analyzed using an appropriate method. The new technology proposed at the Tufts... 

Currently Available Geophysical Methods for Use in Hazardous Waste Site Investigations... 

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